Sizing Up Small Caps

Growing GulfMark

A baby Tidewater; powered by additions to its fleet, sails along to briskly higher sales and earnings.

How about a company with a worldly reach where, in spite of the sluggish global economy, both sales and operating net have been growing at a cool 25% a year? Really, we're not making this up; it truly exists. It's a small-cap outfit, with a stock-market value of only about $330 million, which explains why it hasn't attracted a huge following on Wall Street. And because it's small (and its earnings are lightly taxed), you can buy its shares at less than half its growth rate. The company -- you thought we'd never get to its name --...